Astra's NEW WordPress Block Theme is Amazing đ„
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 20. 07. 2024
- Brainstorm Force, the makers of Astra, the World's most popular WordPress Theme have released a brand new WordPress Block Theme called Spectra One.
In this video I take the Spectra One Theme for a spin.
Links
1 click test Spectra One test site - app.instawp.io/launch?t=spect...
Spectra One download - en-gb.wordpress.org/themes/sp...
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I have a few projects coming up and transitioning all the way to block themes in them. Thanks for your videos - they've given me the confidence to really use block themes in production knowing I won't get stuck somewhere in the future and have to revert back to older approaches with which I'd grown so comfortable with. God bless!
I'd still go with Kadence
I've been a big fan of the Astra theme for years. I'm very pleased to see Brainstorm Force lead the way over block themes and I've already added it as the default theme for my starter site. As much as I like the Oxygen, Bricks, and Breakdance builders I'm thinking it's better to get on the blocks train sooner rather than later.
Oh, and great video as always Jamie.
Iâm using and struggling with Oxygen since 2.0 âŠ. I donât want to have a subscription so Breakdance isnât for me. Currently only Zion Builder has a lifetime offer but now I am rather interested in Block themes like this! I donât use or like Gutenberg but this doesnât intrigue me!
thanks J for the detailed review, also Ocean theme itâs one of my fav. đ
Great video and thanks for the update! I'm a big fan of the Block Themes.
Great đ
Astra Pro Theme forever! I will never change :)
Forever is a very long time đ°ïž
@@jamiewp I have a new word for a sentence: Paragraph Part. LOL! If I ever do switch, it will be to the Spectra One theme. But it will still be never :) Hey, at least I am not on WordPress Classic, LOL!
Thanks for these lovely words, Jamie đ€đ€
My pleasure :)
Is it possible to use Spectra One Theme / Spectra Blocks with ACF? Whatâs about dynamic content in general.
Thanks for another great video. I'll start a new test site to play with this new theme. Cheers
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Thanks, Jamie, I appreciate the one-click install - nice idea! I am not sure I would take the time to download and install though I should. Your videos are always well organized and helpful
thank you very much đ
Thank you very much Jamie. I find your WordPress videos fantastic. I have just converted to Spectra Block Theme and I love it, mush more that using Elementor. Thanks again.
That's great to hear - I've passed it on to their team đȘ
For those who may be afraid of the future of WordPress block themes and need a little hand holding, this sounds like a good way to explore. Good tip for classic designers and non-developers to see how easy block design can actually be.
exactly right
One other thing which continues to be confusing: block theme and block editor. It seems there are at least four different things which are referred to by those terms at various times. Part of that is the block editor for the layout/theme of the site. The block editor for creating your post/ page actual contents. The block editor for changing page/post/site looks/layout. The block theme you use with the WP editor. The block theme you use on top of the WP editor... are you getting the idea? Someone needs to sort that out.
Once upon a time you could set a theme, make a few tweaks, and forget about it. Go on and write content and know that it would show up, be readable, and you wouldn't have to do much other than write more. Those days seem gone now. I've spent weeks just trying to get the site looking the way I would like it to and I've made slight progress.
Meanwhile, after having to fix a WordPress problem, I still have to upload and attach all my images files back to the original posts, which also have to be link checked and updated/ tidied up. That's before even considering anything like SEO, etc. I have over a thousand images and posts, each. People don't know how much there is to keeping a site going, especially a large, old site with a lot of contents. A little business site is so much less to deal with. No wonder there are so few old sites still around. Its so much easier to give up and leave it down.
Oh, then someone goes to something like the Wayback Machine and scrapes ALL your content, every last word and image. If you're really lucky you get them to take it down. There is no way, I know, to protect your content from being scraped. Nothing that really seems to work. So, dealing with this WP theme is such a minor little bug in the wood... at least it should be. I did try going back to just an HTML/CSS site but that's become bloated and overcomplicated too.
Anyway, this is an overlong comment now. Go back to your regularly scheduled video surfing/posting.
Heck yeah I'm going to play with this!
cool
Excellent overview Jamie. I've been quite torn on which way to jump when it comes to moving from page builders over to GutenTurd đ©. It looks like Spectra could be a good option to consider.
Great news! I haven't heard about the Spectra One theme before.
The second argument however is not really an argument for Spectra but more one against Gutenberg. A lot of people say the user experience of Gutenberg is clunky. The example of the sticky header shows exactly that: People expect certain functionalities in certain places. Instead making it easy and obvious (aka how and where to find options as the user would expect it) the Gutenberg team currently, afaik, implements the sticky feature somewhere in the options that can only be found in the list view, that on the other hand is not opened by default, so you must know where to find the list view (the three lines icon is not obvious) or change the preferences first to always have the list view open by default. Uff⊠try to explain that to a client.
Creating a better user experience shouldn't be the job of a theme.
Anyway, thanks for the video!
Yes I 100% agree that Block Themes need polishing - i do think think that block themes that make the site experience easier will win out - and spectra one clearly is in this space
Wow Jamie, that update is truly exciting! I'm wondering if it would be wise to switch the theme of my website that currently has the Astra Classic theme with Spectra One block theme. Do you have any recommendations or suggestions?
Jamie, I never comment on videos but yours was so on-target for me as I struggle with options. I'm not a web professional but prefer to build my sites for my own needs (finding that tasking developers often leads to more time and frustration, apart from the cost). I've used Wordpress for ages and was confused by the emergence of block themes at first, but I was also annoyed by so many people insisting that the only way to use wordpress is through page builders like Elementor which I despise (primarily because when I click to edit a page I see no content, arghh, just an invitation to edit with E). I've been using the Astra Pro Theme with some satisfaction but I'm with you thinking that Block Themes are the future. Thanks.
Thatâs so great to hear - 100% agree with everything you say
Definitely the way forward, and thankfully a few months ago I jumped in on GTB, Blocks, FSE etc. As a Beaver builder and Themer I was already pretty used to customising pages and categories etc, but this just makes it easier - and faster, with less bloat, if any. BSF are great and support is excellent, so Spectra theme and blocks is a no brainer. Also glad I went lifetime on their growth package so I get all the Pro goodies, bring it on! Shout out to Greenshift too, as others have noted, so I'm aiming to use the best of both and see what comes out top. It is still early days, but exciting.
Sounds like a great strategy đ
Seeing the potential of Gutenberg awhile ago, I left Elementor and have sworn allegiance to Blocks. As you've said before Jamie, the learning curve is crazy. It never stops. With that said, I hope Gutenberg adopts some of the new Astra block features. Ty for the review.
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Perfect timing, as I just stumbled upon the Spectra theme two days ago.
I somewhat struggled to get the front page look as in the demo and again got confused with the information for the home template ("⊠If it exists, the Front Page template overrides this template when posts are shown on the front page." - What?!). I hope, the core developers will rephrase that, soon.
The theme however looks great and in combination with the Spectra plugin you have bazillions of layout possibilities.
100% agree with your comment about front page and home page template - it's pretty confusing atm
Block Theme are the future of WP, not ready now IMHO but with Brainstorm Force entering the game, I strongly believe that in a few months it will get where it should be.
Just excellent !
Thiank you đ
Good stuff, thanks for sharing
đ
Very good video!
hello @jamiewp, about your question (4:51) "are you embracing block themes yet?" my answer is YES, for new sites, I will never use a classic theme anymore and I am even in the process or redoing some of my sites. I was on Blockbase (block theme) recently, and I will now try Spectra. I used to be an Astra theme user (Astra or Kadence, when I was using classic themes) so Spectra seems obvious to me. Thank you for this video, thanks Sujay and the Astra team.
I'm happy to give you a like, that's for the cat đŒ
That is a great way to handle the landing pages. How easy is that? Thanks Jamie.
The cat treat is a master stroke. I was shamed into liking this article. Only kidding, I actually found it very useful as I'm just about to start using Spectra One after a long break from WordPress. Thank you for an extremely useful primer on the new product.
đđ thanks Neil
Thanks again for this great video! I am watching a lot of your videos lately to make the stept and switch to a block theme. But what is the best way to do this and make sure everything looks like I want it, before my visitors can see it? I want them to see my current theme until I am happy enough to show them the customized block theme. I was searching on your channel but couldn't find the answer. Hope you can help here - thanks in advance!
Why do you think the standard wp blocks or really any and all blocks, not have responsive options for changing sizes on web, tablet and mobile? Would surely make things a lot easier. Not to mention and this is especially true on the 2023 block theme, why there isn't full options for link and bg color/ hover color etc? Seems like a no brainer to me that all these should be added.
Interesting observations! After I took on fixing an e-commerce site built on Flatsome page builder, I won't take on any page builder assignments again. It gets so much cleaner with blocks.
It sure does :)
Thank you for the update. It looks indeed very easy to use blocks, even for beginners like me. I understand all your videos, but getting it into practice it is harder. This looks easier. I am an in-betweener and i can't choose between Astra or Kadence. Now I only wonder if Spectre is for free or a paid version.
Hi, Spectra One is free đ
Thanks for sharing
thanks for watch Martin
Your videos are very informative. But one request. You should start doing long tutorials on different themes customisations like astra, kadence, blocksy etc. I think this will definitely help a lot of us. Also, please do tutorials on free themes as a lot of new bloggers don't have the budget to go for pro themes. Good wishes đ.
I agree each one of those page builders has starter themes that use Gutenberg. It would be nice for Jamie to do his 30 minute customizations using those. đđŸ
@@chellesnell3348 did you see my 30-minute Nike.com recreation using Astra, and my 30-minute recreation using Kadence? Here is the playlist in case you want to take a look czcams.com/play/PLiPorWuYVbzuVrydFJZflALOc5rpUuwgs.html
@@jamiewp Yes, I watched the Nike video. It gave me some ideas for a site I'm building. I would love to see you build with Astra now that is a hybrid block theme. Thanks for the link!
@@chellesnell3348 hi, astra isn't a hybrid block theme, it's just a classic theme ;)
I think it is time to move to Block based theme! đ From Elementor đ
Good luck and have fun đ
Thanks Jaime, great conversation as usual.
I'm a little confused what's the difference between Spectra One and Spectra Pro?
Hi , Spectra One is the theme (free) and Spectra Pro is the blocks
Amazing! I'm having trouble understanding block themes. Do you have a step-by-step tutorial, or know of one? Maybe there's even one for Spectra One. I just noticed you have a Full Site Editing course. I'm going to check that out. Thank you for your videos.
Hi Annette - i have an old tutorial, but i'm about to record a new one based on my course :)
@@jamiewp I'm having a difficult time trying to remove the 'Home' page title, from that page only. I have Googled it and tried CSS - I checked the inspector to ensure that the page ID was accurate and it was, but it didn't work. I also tried to get a plugin to do that, but none of them have been tested on the newest WP version, so I didn't try the plugins (plus they were rated very low). I did find a way in the block editor to remove all page titles and while that worked, it's not what I wanted. I'm not sure why such a simple thing is so difficult for WP to make easy. It's very easy in Elementor. Any ideas? I'm thinking I may have to wait a year or two to use FSE in WP. Maybe it will be more user-friendly by then. I love Astra and will continue to use that. I really want to use Spectra One too, but I will wait until your tutorial comes out!
How did you do that? In your split screen with 2 different webpages open, you clicked 1 browser tab and that changed to 2 different, open webpages. Which program and OS do you use?
its the vivaldi browser đ
Greenshift FSE theme is even better (in my opinion) and has more options. I use it with Greenshift blocks as my favorite Gutenberg tool. It's very fast, no need for caching plugin. I hope more companies will release their FSE themes.
Are greenshift blocks free or do they have pro version as well?
@@mridulbarman959 Yes, the plugin is free, but there are pro addons on their website.
Iâm dabbling with the GreenShift theme tooâŠblazingly fastâŠredoing all my Kadence & some of my GetWid blocksâŠ
I'm wanting to get used to block themes, but find the WP core nav block too limiting to dive in and use it in production, also hoping that WooCommerce will adopt a block layout so we can customise our pages.
Hi, WooCommerce are adding more Woo Blocks all the time, also check out our woo gutenberg plugins which do that today www.pootlepress.com/wordpress-plugins/
Really Nice. Spectra Plugin is the plugin block for this theme?
Yup đ But it's optional
As a developer, how many Styles can a Block Theme have?
As a user, can I create-add a new custom style, same way I do wtih templates, instead of modifying an existing one?
Exploring but I using Bricks Builder, and its so powerfull
I've tried Cwicly but the editing experience for me and clients is just not there
I have to say Jamie, over the last few years of building most of my sites with the Beaver Builder theme and quite a few with the Astra theme one thing has become clear. I regularly experience glitches with the Astra theme and never do with BB.
If I could turn the clock back Iâd stick to BB and wouldnât touch Astra.
Interesting - what kind of glitches?
Typically formatting of modules i.e. text colours, background colours and border/padding disappearing. I had to reformat some pricing tables on a site just this week for that reason.
Of course this might be more a page builder plugin problem than theme but both are Astra. I used Astra theme and page builder for about a year because at the time the theme scored well for accessibility.
I'd been using the Beaver Builder theme and plugin exclusively after reading a glowing review from Chris Lema about how well coded it was. He's been proved correct, BB theme and page builder are utterly reliable.
@@gerryking4346 đ yup sounds like a page builder issue, not a theme issue to me
Tried it out. Problem with these new FSE/block themes is working with different fonts is a real pain unless you like fiddling with JSON, but the whole point of block editing was to eliminate the need to mess with code, so it's like going back to square one again lol
Just use the create block theme plugin to add fonts
@@jamiewp Thanks for the tip. Seems rather convoluted to have to create a new or child theme just to play with the fonts. In the meantime, I found the 'Options for Block Themes' plugin which provides font addition & local font hosting capabilities as well as template and template-part management. Check it out if you haven't already.
@@PaulRacko2 you don't have to create a child theme to add the fonts - it's just part of that plugin
@@jamiewp Good to know, thanks!
You made me a tru believer
that's cool to hear đ
Maybe Blocks will be good in WP 8.
Themes
Checking "Read - Static" I choose Home
Editor I choose the main page of the template
Editor closes and Home page comes out
I installed Spectra One on Wordpress through Hostinger and I don't have the option to change styles under Design. Is there something that I am missing?
Try also installing the gutenberg plugin - styles can also be found in the top right when in a page template (if you don't have the gutenberg plugin installed)
Do you still need to use a normal theme with Spectra or just its own blocks with gutenberg?
HI Rob, Spectra One is a theme. But you can use a normal theme if you are using the spectra blocks plugin (or any block theme)
Yay, finally we have easy to use FSE compatible sticky transparent headers! I'm all in. I hope they don't put all the good stuff behind a paywall.
I thought of you when i saw the transparent header option Mark ;)
@@jamiewp Damn, there had to be a gotcha. We can't have transparent and sticky headers at the same time. It's one or the other. The Astra theme allows for transparent headers, but the sticky header feature is behind a paywall and seeing the parent company is the same, I suspect they will do the same for this Spectra One FSE theme too. So currently, AFAIK, the ONLY theme that provides the combined transparent and sticky header feature is Kadence... BUT, it's a classic theme with the god-awful Customizer that I am desperately trying to get away from. So, I am still waiting for a decent FSE block theme that provides the magical transparent + sticky header feature. Maybe I can create a simple sticky header plugin specifically for the Spectra One theme.
And it's not because I am too mean to pay for the good stuff as I own an Elementor Pro license (which I am trying un-use as quickly as I can) and Brizy lifetime etc, but I provide WP hosting, so I can't include any paywalled plugins or themes in my wp-cli setup system. ATM Kadence + Kadence Blocks has to remain my default setup. Surely by the end of 2023 someone will provide a decent FSE block theme with BOTH transparent and sticky headers.
Make detail video with spectra one pls
Will do soon - just waiting for some exciting updates đ
Is it much easier to build a websitefor BEGINNER using Spectra OR easier to build website using by editung an Astra Starter template?
It really depends what kind of website and what requirements it has.
Is there any downside to using the Spectra plugin with Spectra One?
Nope
For some reason i don't see the styles tab
Yes at the moment you'll only see that if you have the gutenberg plugin installed - but you can access by going into a template and clicking on the styles icon (top right of the screen)
I have a question. So each time you make a block, add a container and then add the contents into that. Why not skip the double step and just have block and container combined in the first place? Call them containers. Onward to watch the rest of your video.
Um because you can put any block in a group đ
Does Astra have built-in cookie consent banner?
Nope
I can't set up the new 6.2 editor
I select the template,
Activate it
I create a Home page.
Checking "Read - Static" I choose Home
Checked "Blog".
Editor I choose the main page of the template
Everything is fine, but as soon as the editor closes and the Home page comes out, which clogs the main page of the template.
Link not to the main page, but to /chernovik
Tutorial coming tomorrow on this đ
Does the Astra theme support any AI Plugins, and are Plugins theme-specific?
The Ai plugins are theme agnostic
@@jamiewp Thank you for confirming this.
Waiting to embrace block themes as gutenberg is not powerful as compare to elementor, I just want all the functionalities of elementor & pro's functionalities in gutenberg because I mostly create ecommerce websites using woocomerce & ele pro gives the functionality to edit single product layout & product archives but I haven't seen this with gutenberg so with gutenberg I can only create static websties not dynamic so I'm still waiting & learning block themes until I feel it's good to switch
Hi, thanks for your comment - also maybe check out our woo gutenberg plugins - these let you customize woo pages with a block theme and a classic theme www.pootlepress.com/wordpress-plugins/
What about page speed??
It's fast , as are most block themes - scoring 99 in my tests on a shared server
Is Spectra One still useful without installing the Plugin Spectra?
Yup
Ever chapter title screen, when I hear the music, I immediately think of Diablo 3 music. It sounds a lot alike. Great video. I had avoided the block editor completely until over a year after it was out. Even when it became a part of core, I still used the classic editor. Then I finally saw how embracing the block editor could help me eliminate Thrive Architect and speed up our site so dove in. Now I'm 100% on board. Started using Astra for some client work just this spring of 2023 but I'm hooked now. As long as it all loads quickly, I'm good.
Thanks Rob đ
OK here it comes: With Jamie's AI expertise he will now create a AI Plugin to automagically take Ken's legacy ThemeForest Sahifa classic theme and turn it into the Astra Block theme. And it didn't break! đ
Watch this space đ
@@jamiewp I guessed correctly!
wordpress main page template does not fall into place
Could you explain a little more ?
Only block themes
Maybe I am missing the point. If one knows block editing WELL, who needs a theme since one can build a website from scratch within an hour or two?
Hi Paul, that is a great question and certainly true to some extent, but some block themes have extras e.g lovely designs, great block patterns, block variations etc
WHAT IS A BLOCK THEME?
It's a theme that is made 100% out of Blocks
Is it free one paid?
free